Chris Bahn: Confidence There for Razorbacks, Victory Not

Arkansas has the confidence thing figured out.

That was clear early in Saturday's game against top-ranked Florida. Undaunted by the task at hand, the Razorbacks became the first team in 16 games to score first on the Gators.

The later it got, the more apparent it became that all the pregame talk from the Razorbacks about believing in themselves and not worrying about the Gators was more than just feel-good, new age mumbo jumbo. Arkansas played much better than the last time out against an elite team, when it fell by four touchdowns to Alabama just three weeks ago.

But now that the Razorbacks have figured out how to play with confidence against a top-shelf team, they need to figure out how to play for victory against top-shelf teams. As good as Arkansas was, it wasn't good enough to knock off Florida, which held on for a 23-20 victory.

Yes, Florida is good. Arkansas was better most of the day and in the end, the result was the same. And just like the day Arkansas was blown out at Alabama, the Razorbacks can only blame themselves.

"We didn't go into it for a moral victory," defensive coordinator Willy Robinson said. "We wanted to win."

Plenty went right.

Folks will (and should) come away from the game impressed with the way the Razorbacks forced the mighty Gators into four turnovers. They'll marvel at the way Arkansas made Tim Tebow look human at times, racking up six sacks of a two-time champion and Heisman Trophy winner.

Give credit to the Razorbacks for not wilting against Florida. Even when the Gators landed a blow and took a 13-10 lead with 2:59 left in the third quarter, Arkansas rallied. Just a short time later the Razorbacks led 20-13.

Nobody on Florida's schedule has scored two touchdowns in a game. Until Saturday the Gators had given up just one rushing touchdown and one passing touchdown all season. Arkansas had one of each with 9:40 remaining in the game.